Process for series separation of crude petroleum



Dec. 29 "i925- A. R. EARL ET AL PROCESS yFOR SERIES SEPARATION OF CRUDE PETROLEUM Filed August 25, 1923 4 Sheets-Sheet l .I f1 yen fors. Lyw /v cowl/6 .ITIIII Dec. 29 w25y A. R. EARL-ET As.

YROGESS FOR SERIES SEPARATION OF GRUDE PETROLEUM Filed August 25, 1923 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Mm. mw

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Dese;D 29, 1925- A. R. EARL ET AL,

PROCESS FOR SERIES SEPARATION 0F GRUDE PETROLEUM Filed August 25, 1925 4 Sheets--Sheefl 4 l l l l l! 'Patented Der. 29, 1925.

UNITED STATES ALFRED 'R'. AND THOMAS vW'. BEEV'ES, 0F TOLEDO,` OHIO.

rnocnss ron SERIES SEPARATION oF canna PETROLEUM.

Application medaumist 25, 192s. serial No. 659,363.

To all 'whomlz't may' concern 'Y Be it known that we, ALFRED R. EARL and THOMAS W. REEVES, "citizens of the United States, residing at Toledo; .in the county of f Lucas and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Proc;

4esses for Series Separation of Crude Pe-` troleum, lof which the following is a specification. y f f Our invention relates topa method of distilling petroleum oil in a series of stages in acontinuous manner, whereby the several ydistillates are obtained directly as commer- A cial products without any further Vdistilla- -tion treatments.

An object of this invention is to avoid overheating the oil while being distilled. This is done by not exposing the oil heating apparatus to the direct action of hot combustion products.. In our process, the oil is heated by both csaturated and superheated steam, eitherl in direct or indirect contact with the oil. To further avoid the use' of too great a degree offheatfwe vaporize the` oil under reduced pressure.

A further object of our. invention is to reutilizing vthe waste heat wherever possible. -Further objects of the -invention will yappear ffrornthe following detailed description of. ourpro`cess.v o y Weattainthese objects'by the' process carried out-in the apparatus illustrated-,in the, accompanying drawings in which-` Figurev 1 is .anv elevation partlyl insection 'of the rst part'ofthe apparatus.

. injector and heaterq Figure 7 is aside elevationof the con.-A

Figure`2 is a similar' View ofthe second part of thejapparatus. Y

Figure 3 isfa similar view of the third part of the apparatus.

Figure 4 is a similar lview of the) fourth'` part of; the apparatus. Y i Figure 5 is plan view of the heater 7 with the top removed showing the distributing pan and the heating pipes.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary viewrof a steam densing unitsshown' in FigureA 2. j

Figure 8 is an elevat1onal'v1ew ofthe condenser and separators associated with the ap`- paratus shown in Figure 2.

It is to be understood that the apparatus shown `in Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4, are joined v together and that these figures are to be read as if they were placed consecutively end to end. i

Referring to Figure 1 of the [drawing 1 is a storage tank for the crude petroleum that is to be distilled. The oil is drawn from the tank l through the pipe 1a by the pump 2.5

Iwhich forces it through the pipe 25L to the heater' 3 where the oil is heated in any suitable manner., From the heater 3 the oil is.

conducted by the line 4 through the valve 5, which is controlled by the thermally responsive regulator 6 to the heater 7. In the heater 7, the'oil passes upwardly through a series of pipes 5 andthe down turned sections'b (see Figure 5) into theinner pan or distrlbutor 8. From the distributor 8' the heated oil is discharged into the funnelshaped opening 9 of the ipe 9l into the traps 1Q, whence it passes t rough the pressureregulatmg valve 11 and pressure re- `lease valve 12 into the pipe line 13.

Heatis supplied to the oil in the heater 7 bysteam fromthe steam boiler 81. The steam is ledfrom the boiler by the steam line -81ai`nto' the top of the heater 7 whence eating pipes 5a. 4 It will be noticed that the 011 is heated indirectly by the'steam while in the pipes a'and bydirect contact with the steam when'in the pan 8. While imparting its heat tothe oilin the heater 7 the steam .condenses, Aandfthe water ofcondensation is conducted back to the steam boiler 81 by the pipe 81*.-. Further heating is obtained by circulation ofy hotl water from -the boiler through the pipe ,81 into the heater 7 and back to the boiler through pipe 811.

The crude oilvin the heater 7 has been maintained under pressure and therefore vaporization' has been suppressed. However, after the release of the pressure by the valve l2 it is conducted by the pipe 13 into the expansion chamber 14, where, because of the pi e l16a. `The vapors are partially condense in the surface condenser 18, and the condensate and uncondensed vapors are passed bypipe 19`to the separator 20. The liquid condensate is conducted from the y* A I it'passes downwardly in contact with 'the f duce th costfof .fuel used in dlstilllngby h trap 16 are returned to the chamber 14 by 105 separator'2-' to the reheater 21.which is drawn by pipe -23a to a storage tank. -This `distillate is kerosene.,

The uncondensed va ors from theL separator are conducte bygthe pipe 20a' to the vapor line 2,4 where they join'the vapors from the evaporator 23. The line '24con#Ty .ducts the combined `va' ors to thesurface fcondens'er 25 (see Fig. 8 where most of the` vapors are condensed. .From the conden- 'ser25 theV condensate Iand vapors are con- Y ducted' to the separator 26 v where the liquid..

-condensate (which yis gasoline) is separated and drawn olf by pump 27 to the storage `tank 28.` The uncondensed vapor is'drawn oli' from the separator 26-by the pipe 26%A to the condenser29 from which 'any condensate that separates is drawn olf by pipe 29EL to the pump 27. `The uncondensed vapors and gas are drawn off by the pump 30 through the pipe 29b and injected below the surface of Water in the tank 31. Y

Referring to Figure 7, the cooling water for the condensers is sup liedby` the 'pump 32 to the condenser 25, w ich isfthe coolest, and then flows into the nextwarmer condenser 18 by' the pipe controlled. by the valve 33. The pipe 34 acts as astand pipe to` regulate the flow ofwvater` tothe condenser "18 and .also asi afnieans for1 discharging the water directly to 4the water tank 35. The

' atmos here. Y

from the tank 41 by pipe 41a to the, evaporator 59', which is also under reducedwater from Fc ondenser`18 flows lto the tank,

`35.` The'valves 36 (Fig. 2) are back pressurevalves which redue the pressure of the exhaust steanibefore passing into the reheater 21. l .y l The nnvaporized.,residuum4 in the ex ansiqnf' 'haniberf14 (Fig'., 2) Kis' conducte y y by ,theppe 14?ftothegevaporator 37 whence any vapor .that is separated passes :by `line 37 a. lto thef'varioilne' 1 u The'eresiduur from *the exaporator 37 passes by the pipe371'to the pipe 38 '(Fig.'

1) which forces' the oil through the heater 39. From'the heater 39 the oil is conducted"` Vto thesteam/in'ector 40 (Fig. 6) which discharges into t e heating coil 40 placed in the waste heat iue 40b of the steam boiler furnace. f n

From the heating coil 40a the heated oil is discharged into the expansion tank 41 (Fig. 3). The va ors separatedin the tank 41 are drawn olf y pipe 42 to the jet condenser 43 where they are condensed. -By

the vaction of .this jet condenser, the pressure in the expansion tank 41 is kept below The unvaporized oil is conducte pressure, the vapors being drawn olf by the Lamaze pipe 44 tothe jet condenser 45 where. they are condensed, which causes 'the reduced plre'stsure `inthe evaporator 59. The liquids om the condenser` .45 are conducted` by the pi e 45a directlyf'to the jet conde'nser'43 W ere they fact. "as the jettingr fluid. The water. for thecondenser '45 is su plied by the pipe 58 from thehot water tank)` 35 (Fig.

"lhe'condens'ate and Water are pumped from the condenser 43 through the line46 to the separating tank' 47 from which the oil is drawnpi'by the'pipe 48 into the setwith the condensate frolnthe first distillation step.

As before stated, the warm water from tank 35 (Fig. 7) is supplied to the condenser 45 by the pipe 58 (Fig. 3^). The evaporator 59 is supplied with oil from the expansion tank 41, the 'unvaporized oil from the evaporator.59 being drawn 'off through pipe 59a third distilling stage. Referring to'E'g. 4, the heavy unvaporized by the pump 60 to the heater 61 (Flg. 4) y which is the first piece-of apparatus of the oil from the first two distilling stagesis sup plied to the heater61 bythe pipe 61vvhereit l 1s heated by direct contact with superheated steam applied'by the'pipe 82 from which `it'absorbs all of'ts superheat. A superatmospheric pressure "is maintained in the heaterfV 61 so .that no vaporization bf oil takes place therein, the steam, which leaves thef oil as "merely saturated steam, being drawn off through thevtrap 83 yandused to 4 operate thepumps.

The lhot oil is drawn off from' the bottom i l of the heater 61 through the float-controlled l. v

valve 62 and the pressure release valve in the line`63 to the feed distributor tankwiia 64'in the expansion tank 65. The oil overflows the distributor tank 64 down along the; chains 64a suspended from the tank and thus presents a large surface for evaporation. The tank 65 is-maintaine'd under subatmo heric pressure byv means later describe ,whi'ch furtheraids the evaporation ensers 67 where Ithey are partl condensed.

The condensate is'drawn ff y the pipe 67a tothe coil 68 in the cooling tank 69,

from which it is pumped b the pump 70 to the separating tank 71. v he heavy oily material 1s `'drawn olii' to the storage tank 72'. The lighter oil is drawn loff by the pipe 73 to the cylinder stock storage tank. The water is. drawn oli by the constant level overflow pipe v78.

The uneondensed vapors from the condenser 67 pass through the i'pe 74 into the jet condenser 75 suppliedby the pipe 79 with water fromthe tank 35 (Fig. 7) and are condensed. Byl the action of the jet condenser a sub-atmospheric pressure is maintained in the expansion chamber. 65v through the pipe 74, condenser 67 and line 67'. The condensate and water from the jet condenser 75 are pumped through the pipe 76 to the separating tank 76 from which the oil isdrawn through the pipe 77 by thepump 77 to the paraiine. wax d1stillate storage tank.

- The saturated steam used in this Aprocess is supplied by the water tube boiler 81 (Fig. 1) as `was described. i

It will be noted that our rocess contemplates the complete distillation of crude petroleum by` a continuous distillation in generally in Figs. 1 and 2, t

three steps or stages. The first distillation stage is carried out in the aplparatus shown in the apparatus shown generally in Fig. 3 and the third stage of distillation in the ap aratus shown in Fig. 4.

e claim:

1. The method of lcontinuously distilling mineral oil which consists in heating the oil under pressure by means of steam, then releasing the pressure of the yso-he'ated oil and passing the same into an expansion zone, where part .of the oil vaporizes conducting away the vapors so forme and fractionally condensing the same, withdrawe second stage ing the unvaporized oil and further heating the same while 'not permitting vaporization of -`the oil, passing the said heated oil into an expansion zone maintained` at a pressure below atmospheric and there permitting vaporization ofthe lighter products to take place, withdrawin and condensing the vapors soformed, witdrawing the unvaporized 'oil from said expansion zone .and

e pressure of same, and withdrawin the nvaporized oil from said lastname .ex ansion zone.

2. The method of disti ing crude petro leum oil which consists in heating and 'distilling said oil in a plurality of stages and in the last stage, heatin the oil under pressure by `injecting su er eated steam in direct contact therewit withdrawing the oil so heated and while in liquid state from the heatingzone and releasing its pressure, introducin the oil into an 'expansion zone maintains at a pressure below atmospheric, passin the oil t rough `said e n a p urality of .finely divid continuous streams and thus exposing a large surface of said heated oil tothe action of the reduced pressure in said ex ansionzone, withdrawing and 'fractions y condensing the vapors-Aformed-in said expansion zone, and withdrawing the unvapori'zed residuuxu from said expansion zone.

In testimonywhereof, we have hereunto signed your names to thiss ecication.

ALER D R. EARL.

rrrios. w. REEVES.

prevent. vapor-A ansion zone 

